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Deck Guides/AW and FAW Teams
__TOC__ AW and FAW Deck guide Disclaimer: Valkyrie Crusade is a game based entirely on RNG (Random Number Generator). Glossary *AoE: Area of Effect. Something that hits all cards. *Buffer: Usually designated for ATK buffer. They buff by increasing by %, so a 200% buffer triples your damage. **Super Buffer: Card that buffs ATK and DEF *Field: AW skill that removes all buffs and debuffs on the field *Crit: Skill that inflicts a 10x damage hit on a single target *Tap: Tapping an enemy card in battle to attack *Shielder: Aka Nuller. A card that negates the activation of any enemy skill **Attacker Shielder: Nullifies an enemy's Attacking skill (such as AoW or Crit) **Non Attacker Shielder: Nullifies an enemy non-Attacking skill (such as field or buff) *Snowballer: Card that increases its attack every tap *Unleasher: A card that unleashes another's skill *Blitz: Term used to teams that can inflict a lot of damage in short amount of time, resulting in a kill very quickly *SR: Super rare **1* - HSR: Evolution of SR cards. 1* means two SR cards have evolved into 1, HSR means highest level of evolution. **GSR: Awakened HSR card. Read about Awakenings here *UR: Ultra rare **HUR/GUR: Evolved/Awakened UR card. *Heart drop: Acquring a AW/FAW by maxing out their likability rating. *RNG: Random Number Generator. Indicates when something has a random chance of happening, and requires luck. **Proc: Programed Random Occurance. Basically an RNG based event, usually denoted for skill activation. *Overkill: Hitting and killing for damage cap **Damage cap is 999999 damage. 'AW Killing Teams' First we'll focus on what is possible/needed to kill AWs. Killing AWs is a big step for any newer player since that means they can acquire heart drops from FAWs and have their comrades kill those. ' '''In building these teams we are assuming the user cannot yet defeat their AWs and is looking for a reliable way to do that. This will affect card choice and acquisition. If you are looking to build a FAW team, scroll down for the FAW section. ' A quick overview of AW mechanics: AWs spawn at a very low level with negible HP and level up to level 200, where they'll have about 950k HP. This is what we're building to kill. The AW hits for about 3000~ on SR level cards, and has access to a few skills: *Field: Removes all buffs and debuffs *Wave: Archwitch Crit. It oneshots almost any single card *Curse: Curses a card, causing it to die after a set amount of turns *Brew: Increases its own attack by 200% You can read more about AW mechanics over here The Debuffer team '''Fast disclaimer: AW/FAW can cast Archwitch Field if only debuffs exist on the field. The old guide said they do not, but that got changed. The "Crit-down" team This is a pretty easy to put together team. The objective of this team is to have a team buffer trigger and then spam crits in order to bring down a AW. Here's an example * Buffer * Critter * Critter * Critter/Support * Support The Buffer is probably the biggest gating factor: You need a card that at least does something like "Buffs entire team for 200% ATK." These cards are relatively rare, but can be acquired through AW rewards and summons. If you cannot acquire a team buffer, there are cards that apply a 300% buff to a single card. These can work but they're pretty RNG reliant since there's a good chance they'll buff the wrong card. At the time of writing this: the current event has a very powerful FAW card that buffs the team for 100% (200% if GUR) ATK and DEF. If you're lucky enough to somehow acquire one, definitely use her, especially if you're lucky enough to get the awakening. Your Critters should at least be SR 1* to HSR. The more attack the better. As long as your buffer procs your crits should be dealing substantial damage (I would estimate 200-300~k) per crit. Critters are relatively easy to obtain: Nubee actually gave one away for free during the summer 2015 event, and they drop somewhat frequently from AW rewards. The Supports can be whatever is the strongest you have lying around. While a lot of support effects are useful, I'll list the ones in order of importance/usefulness. * Delay: Gives you more time to proc and attack * Heal/Resurrect: Keeps your cards in the game longer * Debuff: Keeps your cards in the game longer * Shield: Can protect you against an AW crit or Field. Read more later for my advice on Shielders. The following two don't counts as "Support" per se, but they are very useful, and if you are lucky enough to find more of these, you should strongly consider adding them to your team. * Buffer: Having a second buffer puts you closer to "blitz" status since your crits can probably hit for 500k+ * Unleasher: A card that unleashes another's skill. There are two kinds: Single target unleasher which unleash one card's skill, and team wide which proc your entire team's skills. Unleashers are extremely powerful and can turn any team from a mere Beatdown to a Blitz team. I'll talk about these more in depth later, since it is possible to build around them entirely. How to Acquire: Acquiring a good team buffer is definitely the hardest part of this team, and is a pretty big gating factor in general for Valkyrie Crusade. Almost all good buffers are available from summons and tend to be URs; though there are a handful of 200% team SRs. A few SRs can drop from AW Rewards . Some events feature either FAWs or Amalgamation rewards as powerful buffers. Rikayu was avaible some events ago, and the current event features the extremely powerful Elemental Queen . The last way to acquire some buffers can be through Ranking Rewards but those require extremely high ranking or a very lucky placement, so we won't be counting those for beginner/practical purposes. Single target buffers can drop from AW rewards or summons. Critters are pretty abundant, in fact a SR critter is available from the Goddess Worship right now, so with a bit of patience and a good alliance anyone is garanteed a 1* or higher Critter just from that. Beyond that Critters can be AW /FAW rewards, and drop from Witch Gates. However beating Witch Gates is pretty difficult and can be pretty expensive so it isn't recommend farming witch gates unless you have a competent team. Support cards come in all shapes and forms of SRs. They're frequently AW rewards, and can be acquired through summons and misc drops. Pros: * Critters mean decent high damage, can kill AW relatively quickly * Multiple Critters means that if one dies you can still win * Critters are pretty easy to find Cons: * Good Team buffers are hardish to find, but they tend to the biggest gating factor in Valk Crusade imo * If the Buffer dies you're probably screwed The Beatdown Team This team follows the similar premise of the Crit down team; however instead of critters it revolves around cards that buff themselves, and is slightly more support oriented. * Self Buffer * Team Buffer * Support * Support * Support How to Acquire/Play The Self Self buffer should be a 1* SR- HSR card that as a skill that increases its own attack by 300%. This will be your main attacker. These cards a bit rare, but not too hard to acquire. They appear from AW rewards , summons, and drop from witch gates. It is also possible to acquire a quick one off UR from a lucky drop off a FAW . To be perfectly honest the best way to reliably acquire HSRs of a card is if it's the AW of an event. Acquiring URs is possible from lucky FAW drops. So either farm AWs or pray to RNGesus For Team buffer, read above. Same as support cards, however you'll want to invest more in delayers and maybe a if shielder (if you're lucky) so you don't lose your precious buffs to a field. An unleasher would be interesting, but again, I'll give unleashers their own section. Pros: * More consistent damage; once your buffs proc you just need to continually tap * Less RNG reliant, similar to above. Once buffs proc you're good to go instead of needing more crits. * More support means the team is more resilient Cons: * Less burst * If the attacker dies you lose all damage essentially * Acquiring 1*/HSR self buffer is slightly harder than finding good critters. The "Blitz-down" Team I also call these teams the steamroller or the snowballing teams. These teams revolve around a very powerful kind of UR card: Cards that increase their attack with every tap. Noteable ones are Speedster and Monkey. This team is a bit more advanced since it revolves around acquiring some UR cards, but I'll get into that later. * Snowballer * Team Buffer * Shielder * Support * Support How to Acquire/Play: Preferably, the snowballer should be a UR card such as Speedster or Monkey. You can earn one from fighting FAWs and hoping for a lucky drop. However there are SRs that exist, so if you can acquire a 1* to HSR version of these cards they can work as well. This will be your main attacker, as the buffs to attack are multiplicative, meaning you gain 40-50% more attack off your last attack value. Let's put this in simple math. Say Speedster deals 10000 damage without any buffs, and her skill is 50% more damage per tap. This damage will escalate as follows: 10000>15000>22500>33750>50625>75937. Over a 750% self buff over 5 taps. Impressive, right? Read above for Team Buffer. A good shielder is pretty important for using a snowballer. Archwitch field will debuff snowballers, so it's imperative to have a shielder who can block that. Unfortunately, a lot of Shielders are all UR, with the only SR one being a summon only card. Again, this team is a bit more intermediate level and is moving into levels that can contest FAWs. '''You can get them from event FAWs . The last two support cards should definitely be delayers or healers. Delayers are preferred since the less time the AW is attacking you, the lower chance of you being hit by a crit or Field. Also it gives your snowballer free reign to stack damage. Pros: * Relative easy high damage output * Very little RNG reliance, since a lot of the damage comes from snowballer buff * Has the potential to face FAWs with some upgrades Cons: * Does prefer UR cards, so it can be a bit harder to build * Completely devastated by Fields, though pretty much a lot of teams are * Can take a little while to get the damage ramped up * If the snowballer dies you're screwed. On Farming AWs (and FAWs) I have said a few times in this guide that you should farm AW to try to get a reward. You might say "Well I can't kill AWs yet, how does that work?" What I mean by "farming" if you can't kill them yet is to send comrade requests to people who will kill your AWs. You'll still get rewards for those kills, and with a bit of luck you'll drop some AWs or SRs from rewards. Also you can earn a Heart Drop from the AW, which more or less guarantees you a copy of the AW. The same concepts apply to FAWs, though you'll worry about that once you can kill your own AWs reliably. The Buffer the Merrier! If you are lucky enough to get multiple buffers, even if the second one is relatively weak, don't hesitate to stack them! All buffs in the game stack multiplicatively, meaning if you use a 200% buffer and a 100% buffer you'll be doing 6x the damage. At this point in the game pretty much all your teams are going to look jury rigged, so don't worry about building a perfect team that follows these guidelines to the letter. If you get lucky with drops and can stack power, do it. Entry Level Unleashers It was brought to my attention that R level unleashers exist in the game. While their stats are pretty lacking and their proc % is pretty low they actually are still pretty useful for AW teams. Slotting one in a support slot and getting a proc on your buffer or attacker will make a huge difference in a fight. On the Topic of Shielders: Shielders (Nullers) have been mentioned a few times so far in this guide. There has been some discussion in the Comments and I feel that it would be best to offer some clarity on what I believe is best with Shielders for AW team building players. There are 3 kinds of shielders in this game: Full Shielders, Attacking Shielders, and non-Attacking Shielders. Full Shielders are almost all UR exclusive with the exception of one that is Summon exclusive, therefore you shouldn't waste too much effort trying to get these. These type of Shielders are more of a late game card; right now you are focusing on early-mid game. If you are lucky enough to get one, certainly try to use them of course. That said, Partial-Shielders are still very useful in early game, since they can protect you from either an AW crit or a Field. There are there a few types you can acquire from farming or drops. you can opt to use an Attacker Shielder to protect yourself against AW crit, or a non-Attacker Shielder to protect against Fields. All that said, I will stress that Shielders for AW teams should be an after thought; You should work on getting good buffers and attackers first, and then worry about a shield later. '''Entry-level FAW killing teams These teams are for players looking to start killing FAWs. I will move forward assuming that you are capable of killing your own AWs, as this will affect card choice. These teams will not be very stable but they should get the job in 1-2 BPs.' ''Note that unless there is a SR with the Witch Hunt skill, you will need at least 1-2 UR/HUR/GUR level of cards to be able to handle FAWs, or unless you have certain powerhouse SR level cards (Unleashers or the infamous Lilim)' A quick overview of FAW mechanics: FAWs always spawn at level 300+ , and have 3.5mil+ HP along with two 50k minions. She will hit for about 5000-6000 damage against a SR card. The FAW herself possesses a variety of skills, but the two that are the most deadly are Field, and her AoE attack. The AoE will oneshot just about everything that's not HUR or higher without defense buffs. The minions also pack skills themselves: 1 turn delay, enemy attack down 25%, and a hard hitting single target spell that one-shots anything that's HUR or lower if there's no defense buffs. Also note that the minions hit as hard as the FAW for taps.You can read more about FAWs here. Advanced Beatdown/Crit Team Essentially better versions of the 3 teams mentioned before. Basically you'll be replacing parts of the teams with UR/GSR/HUR/GUR equivalents of cards mentioned. Since you can kill your own AWs, it means it is possible to acquire FAWs via heart drops. With some luck that means you can build a HUR/GUR, or at least have one UR card from an event. Since this is basically a retool of the above-mentioned teams, instead of listing example teams I'll point out cards you should really be on the lookout for. "Super Buffers" These are cards that buff both ATK and Def. They can be acquired both from Summons or Events . The event cards will need awakenings in order to have a respectable buff amount. "Multi Proc Critters" These are cards that can proc their crits multiple times . A lot of critters in the game only have 1 proc, but some of them can proc multiple times, or even infinitely . Being able to crit more than once is hugely important, since it effectively can double a card's potential damage output. "Snowballers" HUR/GUR version of the abovementioned snowballers are incredibly strong. With a simple 200-300% buffer they can hit close to damage cap, and GUR version can actually hold their own against FAWs even without buffs. If an event ever features one, they are definitely worth picking up. Buff Stacking Teams These teams involve stacking multiple powerful buffers. Buffs stack multiplicatively, this means if you proc a 200% and a 300% buffer you'll be doing 12x damage. As such a second or even third buffer on a team can dramatically stack damage. In conjunction with powerful attackers, a Buff stacking team can reach blitz levels of damage. * Buffer * Buffer * Attacker/Buffer * Attacker/Support * Support How to Acquire/Play: You'll probably want your Buffers to be URs. You can find them from Summons and Ranking Rewards. As far as I know, the only UR buffers that can be acquired outside of those means are Rikayu ,Elemental Queen , and Huang Long . Your secondary Buffer can be SR/HSR, but UR is obviously better. Attackers should be Critters or AoE . Critters will probably hit for damage cap once both buffers have proc'ed, and AoE cards should be hitting for 300k-600k + depending on the rarity of the card. URs can be earned from Events and Summons, or you can use existing HSRs. The Support should either be a delayer or a shielder . Both can be found from events, or summons as well. In my opinion, debuffers and healers don't see that much play in FAW teams. Pros: * Multiple Buff procs means that even basic taps will do a lot of damage * Capable of doing high over kill damage * If a defense buffer is used you'll have decent survivability as well Cons: * Super RNG reliant, since both buffers need to proc before FAW killing damage output can be reached. * Archwitch Field dumpsters you * Stacking buffers seems nice, but there is a much more efficient way of building a team revolving around multiple buffs. Transition from entry-level teams to Powerful Blitz teams Unleasher based teams Full team Unleasher Blitz '''Unleashers are a type of card that unleash the skills of other cards. These cards can single-handedly change a basic beat-down team into a powerful blitz-level team. If you are lucky enough to pull one from a Summon , or if there's one in an Event you should definitely look to acquire one. ' This team revolves around using a Full team unleasher and a team that has a lot of buffing and attacking members. The idea is to have a buffer or two proc, then use the unleasher to activate all attackers and buffers, resulting in massive damage. * Full Team Unleasher * Buffer * Buffer/Attacker * Attacker * Attacker/Support How to Acquire/Play: The team looks a beatdown/buff stacker team on the surface, but the full team unleasher basically doubles everything that those teams could do. Full Team Unleashers I believe are Summon exclusive, so you're pretty much only making this team if you got lucky with a roll and want to make this team. Your buffers should strong buffers, see above for examples. You only need one, especially if your attackers are strong. However if you want to go for maximum overkill or if your attackers are lacking you can put two. The attackers should be 1 AoE and the rest Critters. The AoE should take care of the minions and the Critters will burst down the FAW herself. See above for examples. Note that Unleashers do not proc other Unleashers. This is why I think putting two in a team isn't that great. (though if they did proc on other unleashers that'd be broken heh.) = Pros: = * Incredibly Fast Kill potential, can win in 2-3 turns * Can overkill with ease * Can be built over an existing Beatdown team once Unleasher is aqcuired * Not that vulnerable to Fields because everything is unleashed at once = Cons: = * Very RNG reliant * If the Unleasher is killed off you're probably screwed, or at least lose a lot of damage potential One Buff to Rule them All This is singlehandedly the most infamous team type in Valkyrie Crusade, and is easily one of the best and safest FAW killing teams. The idea revolves using one Buffer, and several Single Target Unleashers along with Shielders to keep enemy skills away. If you want the "perfect" FAW team, this is it. It's a bit brain dead and a bit boring, but you can't argue with its effectiveness. * Buffer/Self Buffer * Single Unleasher * Single Unleasher * Single Unleasher/Shielder * Shielder How to Acquire/Play: The Single Unleashers are the bread and butter of this team. Whenever one procs, hit it, and proc your Buffer. Single Unleashers make appearances in Events a lot. You should look to farm them whenever you can. They also exist in Summons as well. Note that SR versions also exist, but UR is prefferable. Shielders can be found from Events or Summons. A personal suggestion/note: You can throw in a snowballer as well for either variety sakes, or an easier time reaching overkill damage. = Pros: = * Extremely Safe build. * If using a super buffer, your cards become super tanky as well * Field Resistant: Even if you get fielded you can pop your unleashers again and be ready to kick ass again * Decently fast: a few buff procs should be all you need to hit damage cap * Overkills with ease = Cons: = * Not... many... really. * Hard to build: You need a lot of unleashers and shielders, which both tend to be FAW reward from events * Braindead. You might get bored of the game if you run this ;A; Ranking Teams These teams are aimed at optimizing points gained per-battle. These may not be the fasted teams, but they will get more points than the standard teams above. TBD Salvo Based Teams TBD How to Acquire/Play: TBD = Pros: = = Cons: = Multi-Hit Based Teams TBD How to Acquire/Play: TBD = Pros: = = Cons: = The Legend of Lilim Lilim is a particularly famous card in Valkyrie Crusade, being a SR card that could buff a single ally for +900% ATK. Early on, there was no AW Field and +200% team buffers didn't exist yet, either--it was either use Lilim's buff or an infinite crit card such as Scylla or Snow White; achieving max damage required praying for Lilim to proc your max-stat crit card. She remained useful when team buffers came around and turn-skippers improved, but an effective team still required increasing the entire team's ATK stat. As of mid-2015, she finally received a GSR update, which buffed her skill to +900% ATK + 100% DEF. You could use her Single Unleasher team, or put her in other teams as a buffer. Just note that she basically functions the same as a single target buffer on crack. In my honest opinion she's still outdated even after her buff. I suppose you can build a team that has 4 cards that can all utilize her buff, or you can use her in an unleasher team she would eventually buff correctly. But with all that being said, why not just use a Super Buffer? They have more security, and tend be GUR, meaning they're tankier and can do more damage than Lilim. I'm not saying she's bad, if you have her certainly feel free to use her or even build around her if you don't have other good buffers. However if you want a Super Buffer, I think she's inferior. Playing vs FAWs: Team Safety and Overkill FAWs play differently to AWs and have a bit more advanced mechanics, along with some more decision making available to the player. The main thing to judge with is team safety. How safe is your team right now? Do you have a Shielder still up? Is the enemy delayed? How high is your damage? Depending on how confident you feel, you can do several things: # Straight kill. Do you best to straight up kill the FAW. The FAW poses the greatest threat usually, since she can hit for a massive AoE and also Field your entire team. # Kill the Minions early. The minions use skills that can be pretty annoying and they can eat up shield procs. Using a skill early or targeting them early will make killing the FAW herself easier. # Kill the Minions later for Overkill. If you're confident with your team/have safety, you can wait for skills and buffs to proc so you can inflict more damage against the minions for a better score. # Maximum Overkill: You hit the minions after all your buffs have proc'ed and you're reaching damage cap. You then hit the FAW as low as possible before killing so you can kill her for maximum overkill as well. Last note: Stacking HUR/GURs Usually Works This last part is more of a disclaimer to remind me you that these builds do not need to be followed to the letter. For the longest time the team I used didn't match any of these builds, and was just a collection of UR/GUR cards with an HSR thrown in. The team had pretty good consistency and I could usually aim for a decent amount of overkill. It was * GUR Speedster * GUR Summer Oracle * UR Prometheus * UR Pala * HSR Elsa Category:Mechanics & Gameplay